You may have notice that we have posted a Casino Rueda class for January 2009. If you are wondering what Casino Rueda is, it may be the most fun you will having dancing salsa!
Casino Rueda is a form of Cuban salsa danced in a round circle with 2 or more couples exchanging partners where one person calls out the turn pattern names. Every dancer in the Casino wheel executes the same moves at the same time and partner switches are constant. It is fast, fun and challenging.. Students must have completed level 2 to participate in this class. Consistent attendance is important as any absences will affect the entire circle.

Casino Rueda is a particular type of round dancing of Salsa. It was developed in Havana, Cuba in the late 1950s and early 1960s by the famous group Guaracheros de Regla and one of its main choreographers and creators was Jorge Alfaro from San Miguel del Padrón, a soloist of a comparsa.

It was really fun last night
Thank you Sharon
The only thing is I do not remember 1 word from instructor's commands, even it was few
Who knows all commands we went through last night?
It was 5 or 6
One was dame(dome) - not sure about spelling -- for change partners
This one I remembered very well .

He will probably will repeat it every time in class but it will be more and more
So where I can find clarification of this fun?
Thanks in advance

If I am not mistaken, the last lesson we learned just 3 new moves and tapping on 4th and 8th beats. And since the video can tell much more that a text description, I took a time to find some YouTube examples of these moves:

I think a lot of new casino rueda dancers worry too much about the names of the moves.

For example, I think "siete" is more often called "pancake" in Cuba. Depending on the region, city, or generation the person is from in Cuba, the same move can have many different names.

A lot of the moves that they do in casino rueda in North America come from Miami. Miami rueda calls come from an earlier time (1950-70's), when most Cubans immigrated to Miami. Later on, even some of the calls were invented in Miami adapting to North American salsa styles. "Miami style" now is really just a mixture of Cuban and North American styles. A few established casino rueda schools in Miami are quite antagonistic to newer casino rueda moves or new Cuban music, because they deem it "communist dance or music". Can you believe that?

The important thing is to have a good teacher who can teach the difference between casino salsa dancing and North American salsa dancing.

If you join a rueda, you will always have moves you don't know or you have never heard of. However, if you are a good casino dancer (as opposed to "salsa" dancer), you can pick them up quickly.

Even the most advanced casino rueda dancers won't know all moves. Of course, in a class, it is important that everyone do the same thing, because you are learning.

However, casino rueda is always evolving and changing. That's why, I love it. Learn from every casino rueda teacher and school. Take the politics out of salsa dancing.
Invent your own move.

I heard it is intermediate level class on Sunday, so those who have little or no experience in Casino Rueda should not try interfering with more advanced dancers there. After all, it's only fair to everybody._________________Music is my religion, salsa is my confession